Italy enters the war, June 1940
A bald man in uniform greets a visitor, soldiers march on the road to Menton, Roosevelt speaks, and Mussolini reviews a formation.
Before a carved doorway a bald man in a dark uniform, apparently Benito Mussolini, clasps the hand of a grey-haired man in a dark suit. Motorcyclists ride away from a mountain tunnel beneath a road sign reading France Menton 3 km, and soldiers in steel helmets march past houses. In a darkened hall Franklin D. Roosevelt speaks behind a row of microphones, and a stocky man in uniform, apparently Mussolini, walks along a line of uniformed men while the crowd behind raises hats and arms.
On 10 June 1940, with France already beaten, Italy declared war on France and Britain. The same day Roosevelt said at Charlottesville that the hand that held the dagger had struck it into the back of its neighbour. The Italian offensive in the Alps began on 20 June and gained only a few kilometres, among them the town of Menton; the Franco-Italian armistice was signed on 24 June.
